Rainmaker Entertainment president Michael Hefferon spills details on the relaunch

Beloved 1990s kids show ReBoot is getting rebooted. But it won’t quite be the same show its original fans remember.

Rainmaker Entertainment announced earlier this month that its television division, Mainframe Entertainment, will be resurrecting the computer-animated show about sprites living in the computerized town of Mainframe.

The Canadian-made show first aired in 1994 and has been off the airwaves for over a decade.

Rainmaker itself created a #BringBackReBoot campaign with support from the show’s fans, who are now well out of their childhood years. Although they’re getting their wish of a relaunch, technology has outpaced the personal computer world of the original ReBoot.

“The world of technology has change drastically in the 20 years from when ReBoot first started,” Rainmaker president Michael Hefferon told Canada.com, and hinted that they already had a strategic partnership with one “major computer entity” to bring the show into the new millennium.

“Countless people have gone into technology jobs because of ReBoot”

The world of ReBoot will need an upgrade for a new generation — and yes, that includes the characters: Bob, Enzo, Dot, Phong, Hexadecimal, Megabyte and the whole gang are unlikely to be featured players any longer.

“I don’t think too many people would remember what a Dot Matrix is anymore,” said Hefferon.

That’s not to say your old favourites are gone forever. Hefferon says a mix of old and new is the most likely outcome.

“We’’re very big fans of the characters, the world, but now trying to say how do those characters and worlds fit today for a new generation of kids who don’t know anything about the previous ReBoot.”

Which, as a reminder, looked like this:

Rainmaker and Mainframe are shooting for a “cross-family” approach, with gags and references that “will be a lot of fun for the existing ReBoot fans,” said Hefferon.

However, ReBoot will continue to be a kids’ show. And kids these days are more familiar with clouds, mobile technology and online gaming than with the single-player, human vs. computer-style games we saw in the original ReBoot. In 1994, families were just starting to have internet connections in their homes. Today, kids are practically born with an iPhone in hand.

With that in mind, the new show won’t just be a show. Hefferon said they’re planning a cross-platform experience that kids can engage with even when the show isn’t on. That means an app, interaction on social media with characters, earning points for participating online during broadcasts or viewers designing their own computerized characters.

“The ReBoot world has grown beyond a mainframe,” said Hefferon.

Though much will be new about ReBoot, the creators still want to harness the original show’s affinity for turning kids on to technology.

“I’ve been so impressed hearing from fans how ReBoot basically helped facilitate or open up their eyes to opportunities for their careers,” said Hefferon. “Countless people have gone into technology jobs because of ReBoot.”

Computer-generated graphics are par for the course now, so for the reboot Hefferon wants to get kids hooked on coding. He plans to push computer coding languages in the show then create further opportunities to learn through the show’s online counterparts.

“Coding has become such an important aspect, it effects every part of our lives whether we know it or we don’t know it,” said Hefferon.

Of course, all this is still in the planning stages. The new ReBoot won’t officially be pitched until this February as Rainmaker goes looking for broadcasters and partners. They’re eyeing YTV, the children’s television channel where the show originally aired, to broadcast the relaunch as well.

Ideally, said Hefferon, the team will be writing scripts by next summer.

Although all of this means that the old ReBoot is truly gone for good, Hefferon wants the new series to have the same impact the original show had as the first half-hour fully-computer-animated TV program.

“There’s so many things that we can do now with technology that didn’t exist or was in its infancy stage with ReBoot,” said Hefferon.